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Federal investigation probing possible corruption in Macomb County trash hauling

Posted at 6:42 PM, Oct 18, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-18 18:44:05-04

The feds are asking questions in Macomb County this week as they continue working what they call systemic corruption among public officials.

There is big money is trash.

Rizzo Environmental Services has dozens of contracts throughout metro Detroit and paid to play, company officials acknowledge.

At the same time, many elected officials where Rizzo has contracts are being asked if they are on the take. That happened last night at the Chesterfield Township board.

The red Rizzo trucks pick up the trash in Chesterfield Township.

A 2011 contract was renewed in late 2013 for an additional 5 years.

That’s why taxpayers there want to know if that was done with bribes.

The township supervisor was not available to us today.

Over in Shelby Township, the 7 Investigators have learned the FBI will be there asking questions this week. A Rizzo contract there was renewed last year with a ten-year extension.

Last week, Clinton Township Trustee Dean Reynolds was charged by the feds with bribery for allegedly taking tens of thousands of dollars and a paid for divorce attorney from what the feds call Company A.

According to federal court documents this investigation has used multiple telephone wiretaps, cooperating individuals making consensual audio and video recordings, an undercover FBI agent, physical surveillance, telephone tracking warrants and subpoenas of financial and other records.

We’ve seen this move in Detroit when J.R. Rosendall, a bagman for Synagro, a sludge hauling company trying to get a multi-billion dollar contract was busted by the feds and wore a wire, taping himself with Bernard Kilpatrick, the father of then Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, the chief of staff to the Detroit City Council President and FBI surveillance delivering champagne as part of the payoffs in that case.